Friday, December 14, 2012

Pike River: PM's apology 'far too late'Prime Minister John Key today fronted an at times angry group of Pike River Mine families in Greymouth to apologise - and pledge funding of about $10 million to recover the main tunnel.

Mr Key said afterwards it was important to apologise face to face on behalf of the Government, but he stuck to his view that recovering the 29 bodies from the main workings of the mine remained unlikely.

Out of the 29 chapters of the TPP, only 5 deal with trade, the remaining chapters are all about deregulating the way NZ domestically runs it's economy.

Key has visited the families of the Pike River Mining tragedy to apologize for the despicable lack of regulation that led to their deaths, yet he is also pushing to sign this TPP which would deregulate the entire economy.

How long can this political schizophrenia hold before anyone questions it?

America wants this free trade deal to boost their corporates hegemony as a balwurk against Chinese expansion into the Pacific - which means they will be ruthless in its application because it's been elevated to a national security threshold.

The Trans Pacific Partnership is the largest threat to our political and economic sovereignty our generation has ever faced.

America is using this suffocation of our ability to pass domestic laws so that their corporations have a constant edge over China in the Pacific. Key's claims of us making $3billion from this democratic noose are as vacant as his aspiration.

If we sign this, our medicines will increase in cost, our ability to pass laws for NZs interests are eroded and American corporations will be able to prosecute any Government who threaten their profit dominance.

The latest Roy Morgan Poll staggeringly has National at 45.5% - sleepy hobbits will reap what they sow and if this free trade deal is passed, my bet is they will be the first to scream 'what's happening'. By then it will be far too late to stop these corporations and Key's gentle promises of making billions will be tomorrows fish and chip wrappings.

Key's apology to the families impacted by the lack of regulation is a hypocrisy because he;s about to let the Pike River Mine standard of regulation to be expanded across the country.

3 Comments:

Oh god, I've seen it all before and it works every time - governments pushing through the really big, potentially unpopular stuff in December, while the public are busy with Christmas arrangements, kids' end-of-year concerts, painting the house, polishing up the barbie, etc, etc.

Schizophrenia is a mental illness. Not a description of an apology. Your use of the term in your post just adds to the stigma experienced by genuine sufferers of the illness. How about "The political common cold of Key's Pike River Mine apology". It doesn't work does it?